South Carolina’s NCAA Championship Win Over Iowa Delivers Record-Breaking 18.7 Million Viewers

Talk about a slam dunk.

Sunday’s NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship game amassed 18.7 million total viewers across ABC and ESPN, up 89% from last year (and +285% vs. 2022) to stand as the most-watched women’s college basketball game on record, since 1992.

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In fact, the South Carolina Gamecocks’ 87-75 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes delivered the most-watched basketball game — men’s or women’s, college or pro — since 2019, and the most-watched non-football, non-Olympics sporting event since 2019.

Viewership for the championship contest peaked at 24 million, ESPN/ABC reports.

The Hawkeyes’ loss ended NCAA superstar Caitlin Clark‘s career on a slightly sour note, with no national title under her belt. But on the plus side, of course, Clark emerged from the season as the all-time NCAA basketball scoring leader.

The Live+Same Day numbers reported in TVLine’s daily-ish ratings column do NOT reflect a television program’s overall performance, given the increased use of delayed playback via DVR and streaming platforms, plus out-of-home viewing. These numbers (Nielsen fast nationals, unless specifically denoted in bold as finals) instead aim to simply illustrate trends or superlatives. Steve Harvey is not a judge or lawyer and merely offers an alternative forum of dispute resolution.

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